Review & Swatches: Bobbi Brown Rich Caviar Eye Palette

With six mix-and-match shades this eye palette truly strikes it rich. Featuring everything you need to take eyes from day to night including Bobbi’s beloved base shadow in Bone and the palette’s namesake shade in Rich Caviar. Complimentary colors include metallic and sparkle textures, perfect for building intensity. A Mini Dual Ended Shadow/Liner brush completes the set-all it needs now is a bow.

Bobbi Brown’s new, limited-edition Rich Caviar Eye Palette is releases with its Holiday 2012 collection. This palette includes the following shades:

Bone: Off white

Candlelight: Mid-tone shimmering beige gold (Metallic)

Wheat: Medium ash beige

Olive: Golden green (Sparkle)

Black Topaz: Deep green with gold pearl (Metallic)

Rich Caviar: rich black brown

Packaging:9/10

The Holiday Eye Palettes come in glossy, black, rectangular, plastic compacts. The special packaging displays a collegiate-type logo on the lid. The light-weight compact has a snap-shut lid that flips open to reveal a mirror inside.

Quality: 7.75/10

The Rich Caviar palette has an array of neutral and green-based eye shadow shades. The colors provide a good selection for both a natural daytime or work-appropriate eye look and a neutral smoky eye look.

The quality of the shadows is very mixed, though. This palette’s matte shades are quite good. In particular, Wheat and Rich Caviar (the two shades in the far right column) have good pigmentation and glide onto the skin smoothly.

Candlelight is a Metallic formula shadow, and while it isn’t as creamy as Wheat and Rich Caviar, it also applies with good pigmentation and decent smoothness.

Bone, while being a matte formula, barely shows up on the skin, even with multiple layers. I have used this shade for under the brows, but even then, you really cannot tell there is any eye shadow on the skin.

Olive (Sparkle formula) and Black Topaz (Metallic formula) are quite disappointing. The formula for Olive is very, very stiff. The underlying powder doesn’t transfer onto the skin, so you’re left with a dusty array of shimmer particles on the skin and little-to-no underlying color. This shade also develops a crust on the surface of the pan after the first use (sort of like what happens when you apply an eye shadow wet that isn’t supposed to be used wet, even though I did not test this shade with a damp brush), which further inhibits its ability to transfer onto the skin.

Black Top fares a little better in having the underlying deep green color show up, but it’s patchy on the skin and requires extra blending to make even.

At least the wear time for the eye shadows is good: they began to crease after three and a half (3.5) hours when applied over bare skin and after about six (6) hours when applied over a primer.

In the end, only two (2) to three (3) of the shades in the eye shadow palette are of good quality. The rest have varying formulation or color issues.

Ease of Use: 8/10

The matte shades apply significantly more smoothly and evenly than the shimmery or glittery shades. In particular, expect to encounter some frustration with Olive‘s inability to transfer well.

Price: 9.5/10

For $47.50 you get 0.33 ounces (9.4 grams) of product. Bobbi Brown’s single shadows cost between $21.00 and $28.00 and contain about 0.08 ounces (2.8 grams) each. You are certainly getting more product for your money by buying a palette like this than by buying the shades individually.

Final Grade

Bobbi Brown Eye Palette Box Packaging

Bobbi Brown Eye Palette Box Packaging

Bobbi Brown Rich Caviar Eye Palette Packaging

Bobbi Brown Rich Caviar Eye Palette Packaging

Bobbi Brown Rich Caviar Eye Palette

Bobbi Brown Rich Caviar Eye Palette

Bobbi Brown Rich Caviar Eye Palette

Bobbi Brown Rich Caviar Eye Palette Swatches

Bobbi Brown Rich Caviar Eye Palette Swatches

Bobbi Brown Rich Caviar Eye Palette Swatches

Bobbi Brown Rich Caviar Eye Palette Swatch: Bone

Bobbi Brown Rich Caviar Eye Palette Swatch: Candlelight

Bobbi Brown Rich Caviar Eye Palette Swatch: Wheat

Bobbi Brown Rich Caviar Eye Palette Swatch: Olive

Bobbi Brown Rich Caviar Eye Palette Swatch: Black Topaz

Bobbi Brown Rich Caviar Eye Palette Swatch: Rich Caviar

Disclosure

This sample was provided for consideration purposes by the brand or a PR company. Reviews are always honest and never paid for.